I’m starting to realize why I didn’t start blogging until my girls were sleeping through the night. It’s not that I have nothing to write about. It’s just that I’m DONE by the end of the day.

However, I cannot bear to have that intense labor post sticking up on top of my blog. So, here’s a quick update.

1) THE BABY:
The baby will be five months old in about a week and is a total cutie pie. He’s s very mellow dude and pretty much hangs out. He hasn’t even learned to cry convincingly when he needs something. He just sort of cry-cackles when he’s hungry. When he’s grumpy, which is usually in late afternoon, he’s fine as long as you plop him on your knee while you eat or play with the girls. He smiles often. When he smiles is mouth is wide open he often has a look of sparkly wonder in his eyes. He also belly laughs. He does this every single time I raise his arms above his head and say, “Wheeeeeeeeee.” He first tooth broke through tonight. He was pulling on his ear a bit, so I decided to check his gums and pop. He laughed right after I did it in a relieved kind of way. (Update: it’s the next morning and I think having a tooth makes this little bugger a little more opinionated.) He doesn’t seem particularly advanced in terms of movement (yippee). He rolls over front to back once in a blue moon and hasn’t flipped from back to front yet. Hannah crawled at six months and I’m definitely not wishing on that again. I totally missed out on the blissful sitting-up-and-going-nowhere phase with her.

2) THE GIRLS:
The girls have just recovered from bad colds. Last week they were pretty miserable to be around. Now my husband and I have the cold and are no more fun to hang out with than they were, no doubt. They seem to be enjoying school a lot. Hannah is one of the leaders, age-wise, in her class this year. She’s been nurturing the little ones a lot and talks excitedly about it after school. This is great for her, since she’s in middle-child no-man’sland at home. Too old to be the baby, but still bossed around by the big sister. At home, Hannah has been attempting to express her feelings of jealousy lately. No, she’s not jealous of the baby. She’s frustrated that her older sister hogs the baby. I’m trying to help carve out some time for her to play with him alone, but also am trying to impress upon her that if she didn’t stick her face right on top of the baby’s face (and sometimes even sneak a lick!), her play sessions might last longer. We are also trying to impress upon Rachel how damaging it is to Hannah’s sense of self when she continually bosses Hannah and corrects everything that comes of out of her mouth. Of course, when you are seven it makes perfect sense and not mean at all to tell your four-year old sister that she is making no sense. So we, her parents (both youngest siblings and admittedly biased), are feeling a bit helpless training Rachel to talk to her younger sister in a more positive way, while WE OURSELVES are correcting Rachel in a negative way. Briliant child that she is, that irony is NOT lost on Rachel. (I have started homeschooling myself in the art of positive discipline. I’m a slow learner.) And of course, I must end this discussion by stating that on all other accounts Rachel is a most beautiful big sister. In fact, it is Rachel that will search for Hannah’s blanket three or more times a day while Hannah is having a meltdown at the loss of her dearest blankie and Mom and Dad are throwing their hands up in frustration at the crying.

Did I mention that the scariest movie that Hannah has ever seen is the one where Elmo loses his blanket?

Also, I told Rachel she could read the Harry Potter books, but only after she’s read the whole Little House series. Now she’s burning through the life and times of Laura. I think I’ve officially become a control freak.

I think I’m going to stop on that note. As I mentioned before, I have the girls’ cold now and am pretty miserable. I think I’ve distracted you all from the previous discussion of body fluids. My job is done.